1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to a method and an apparatus for storing a stereo image, and in particular, to a file format structure suitable for storage of a stereo image and a method of storing the stereo image by using the same.
2. Description of the Related Art
With the wide spread popularity of camera phones, functions of camera phones have been increased and a camera phone capable of photographing a stereoscopic image as well as a two-dimensional image has appeared. A camera phone photographs a three-dimensional stereoscopic image, that is a stereo image, by using two camera sensors. A stereo image is compressed and stored by using conventional Codecs, such as conventional MPEG series, JPEG, H.26X series and file formats, such as MP4 and AVI. However, since there is no special file format for a stereo image in a conventional mobile communication terminal, it is impossible to transfer additional information representing a stereo image.
In a mobile communication terminal mounted with a barrier LCD, it is possible to display a three-dimensional stereoscopic image as well as a conventional two-dimensional image. Such a mobile communication terminal can realize not only a conventional two-dimensional image, but also a stereo image just as an actual image of a three-dimensional object viewed by the two eyes of a person. Specifically, a stereo image is a three-dimensional stereoscopic image created by using a left-viewpoint image and a right-viewpoint image, in which the left and the right images attached with each other are stored as one. Then, when the left image and the right image are displayed on a mobile communication terminal mounted with a barrier LCD through an interleaving process, a user can view a three-dimensional stereoscopic image.
In this manner, such a mobile communication terminal mounted with a barrier LCD can store a stereo image as well as a two-dimensional image, but a problem occurs in lower compatibility when a stereo image is stored using a process for storing a two-dimensional image.
As described above, since there has been no file format specifically defined for storing a stereo image, a stereo image has been stored using a conventional file structure without considering the characteristics of the stereo image. Therefore, although a mobile communication terminal mounted with a barrier LCD can display a stereo image as well as a two-dimensional image, it has been impossible to divide the two images and to display the two images according to image characteristics because both images are stored as a same file structure.